Year: 2022

Employment Tribunal: Claiming Against Your Employer

Employment Tribunal

If you are in dispute with your employer and have exhausted all other resolution options without reaching agreement, you may be considering taking them to an employment tribunal. Almost all legal cases about employment are dealt with by an employment tribunal. It decides upon employment disputes between employees and their employers surrounding issues such as […]

Notice to employees when selling business

Notice to employees when selling business

Notice to employees when selling business Selling a business is a complex process, involving a broad range of considerations. How you manage and engage with your workforce through the process will be critical, not just to maintain positive relations but also to minimise legal risk. The following guide for employers examines the rules relating to […]

Helping employees with a phased return to work

phased return to work

Helping Employees with a Phased Return to Work After an employee has been off work for an extended absence, whether through ill health, maternity leave or bereavement, the transition back to work can be quite difficult for some employees. A phased return to work allows employees to make that adjustment in a more manageable way. […]

Government takes first legal action on building safety against freeholder

Government takes first legal action on building safety against freeholder

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is bringing legal action against a freeholder for neglecting to address building safety flaws. The freeholder of Stevenage’s fifteen-story Vista Tower, Grey GR Limited Partnership, a company owned by RailPen, has been given 21 days to fix the tower’s fire safety issues, or a court application will […]

Stamp Duty on Commercial & Non-Residential Property

stamp duty

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) can make a significant difference to the overall costs when buying non-residential land and property, so it is important to understand the rules around when this levy is applied, the commercial SDLT rates and how this is calculated. In this guide for buyers, we explain the rules on stamp duty […]

How to employ someone

how to employ someone

How to employ someone: step-by-step guide Employing someone is an exciting time for a business, but doing it correctly involves several different stages that an employer must follow before members of staff can be fully brought on board and start their employment. In this guide, we explain the key steps of how to employ someone […]

Ill Health Capability Dismissal Process

dismissal due to ill health

If an employee has been on long-term sick leave or has had frequent periods of being off work due to sickness, an employer may have to weigh up the difficult decision as to whether they can keep the employee on or not. An employer should always take legal advice before deciding to dismiss an employee, […]

Benefits of a clear desk policy

clean desk policy

The benefits of a clear desk policy A clear desk policy can play a valuable role in ensuring compliant security practices in the workplace, as well as creating a more efficient and environmentally-friendly working environment. In practice, clear desk policies are not the most straightforward to implement. It can be challenging to monitor compliance, and […]

ICO Publishes Revised Draft Journalism Code

ICO Publishes Revised Journalism Code

A revised draft of the UK’s Journalism Code has been published by the Information Commissioner (ICO) and is now open for public consultation. The UK’s data protection regulator is revising guidelines to make clear journalists’ obligations under UK data protection law. The draft code sets out recommendations and expectations of those engaged in ‘journalism’ using […]

Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

retained eu law

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, the Bill marks the start of what could be the most significant programme of employment law reforms in the UK since the 1970s. Published on 22 September 2022, the 42-page document could be used to revoke over 2,400 pieces of EU legislation that were included on the UK […]

Can you contact employees on sick leave?

HR Hype can you contact employees on sick leave

As an employer you will want to ensure the health and wellbeing of your employees during any period of sick leave. But there is a balance to be achieved between reasonable contact designed to check on an employee’s welfare, or to address any absence-related matters, and contact that may be considered excessive, unnecessary resulting in […]

Person with Significant Control (PSC) Explained

person with significant control

Companies and limited liability partnerships must comply with certain PSC requirements, by identifying individuals who own or control the company, who are referred to as People with Significant Control (PSCs). In this guide, explain how to identify PSCs and the PSC compliance obligations, as well as the consequences of non-compliance and what happens if a […]

TikTok Facing £27m Fine From UK Data Commissioner

TikTok Facing £27m Fine From UK Data Commissioner

TikTok is facing a £27 million fine after the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) provisionally determined that it violated child data protection regulations over a two-year period. The ICO said that social media giant “may have” processed data of children under the age of 13 without parental consent between May 2018 and July 2020. Additionally, […]

Settlement agreement instead of redundancy?

settlement agreement redundancy

As an alternative to redundancy dismissal, employers will often consider using settlement agreements to bring affected employees’ employment contracts to an end. Terminating employment through a settlement rather than redundancy means the employer does not have to follow the full redundancy process and removes the associated risk of tribunal claims. A settlement agreement can often be […]

What training should new managers get?

training for new managers

What training should new managers get? Anyone promoted to a managerial role for the first time should be supported in their new responsibilities through appropriate training. Managers play a critical role in enabling organisations to meet their commercial objectives, so investing the time to develop your management teams benefits both individuals and the organisation as […]

Chancellor Announces Permanent Stamp Duty Cut

Chancellor Announces Permanent Stamp Duty Cut

Stamp duty is to be reduced with immediate effect, as announced by the Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, in today’s ‘fiscal event’. The threshold above which property buyers now have to pay in stamp duty has increased from £125,000 to £250,000. A typical family moving into a semi-detached home will save £2,500 in stamp duty, according to […]

New Legislation Put Forward to Amend, Repeal & Replace EU Law More Easily

New legislation to repeal, replace & amend EU law more easily

The UK Government has put forward the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill to remove the ‘special features’ of EU law that remain in the UK legal system. The Bill amends the 2018 European Union (Withdrawal) Act to make it easier for UK legislators to amend, repeal or replace retained EU law (REUL). Since […]

How to Check UK Visa Application Status

After submitting your UK visa application, you will need to wait for UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) to process your application before travelling to the United Kingdom. This process can be frustrating and nerve-wracking for many people. One way to ease your nerves can be to check the status of your UK visa application in […]

Can you dismiss someone for something outside of work?

can you get fired for something outside of work UK

If you become aware of allegations that an employee has acted improperly or potentially illegally outside of work hours, what should you do? While employers have the right to take action to safeguard their organisation’s reputation, they must balance this with the employee’s rights within the specific circumstances. This means following a fair and lawful […]

Legal challenge launched against government’s new ‘strike-breaking’ laws

Title: HMRC starter checklist; employers' guide Key phrase: HMRC starter checklist Synonym: P46 Audience: Employers Word count: 2200 minimum The following guide for employers looks at what you should do in the context of registering a new-starter for PAYE and setting them up with the correct tax code, including using the HMRC starter checklist where the employee does not have a recent P45. We explain the different steps that you must follow, as the employer, when taking on a new recruit in the context of your obligations to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), including: checking that you need to pay your new-starter through PAYE getting information to work out your new-starter’s tax code finding out if your new-starter needs to repay a student loan, and registering your new-starter with HMRC. If you are employing staff for the very first time, you will need to register as an employer with HMRC before anything else. You can do this 4 weeks before you pay your new staff.   Do you need to pay your new-starter through PAYE? You will need to pay a new-starter though Pay As You Earn (PAYE) if they will be earning £123 or more a week, £533 a month or £6,396 a year. However, you do not need to pay self-employed workers through PAYE, including freelancers or independent contractors. As a general rule, someone will be classed as ‘self-employed’ if they run their own business and are responsible for both its success or failure, and as ‘employed' if they work for you and do not take on any of the risks associated with running a business. When taking on someone new, you must always first ascertain their employment status to make sure that they are not self-employed. If you get this wrong, there may be pay extra Income Tax and National Insurance to pay, as well as interest and a possible penalty. When it comes to agency workers, you do not need to operate PAYE if a worker is paid by the agency, unless that agency is based abroad and does not have a trading address or representative in the UK. For any temporary workers that you pay directly, you will still need to operate PAYE, provided they are classed as an employee. Even if you will only be paying an employee once, you will still need to put this through PAYE, although the way in which you do this is different to when you will be paying an employee on a regular basis. What information do you need to work out their tax code? You will need to obtain certain information from your employee so that you can set them up with the correct tax code or starter declaration on your payroll software, including: their full name and address their gender and date of birth their National Insurance number their employment start date the leaving date from their last job their total pay and tax paid to date for the current tax year their student loan deduction status, and their existing tax code. You will usually get most of this information from any recent P45 that the employee is able to give to you from their last employer. A P45 provides a record of the amount an employee has earned in their previous employment and what taxes they have paid on their salary so far in the tax year. In this way, this allows the right information to be passed on to a new employer, to be inputted into their payroll software, to ensure that tax continues to be deducted from an employee at the correct rate. If your new-starter has more than one P45, you should use the one with the latest date and give the other back to them. If these have the same leaving date, you should use the P45 with the highest tax-free allowance. If the new-starter does not have their P45, they will need to complete the ‘HMRC starter checklist’ for PAYE. Equally, if they left their last job before 6 April 2021, and so have not been in work for more than a year, their P45 will no longer be valid. This is because a P45 is only valid for the tax year in which it was issued. If you receive a P45 for a prior tax year then you should not use this, but should instead ask the employee to complete the starter checklist, in this way providing you with information about the current tax year. The HMRC starter checklist can be found online at GOV.UK and can either be completed online and printed off to give to you, or downloaded and completed manually. The statement will ask the new-starter for their personal details and student loan deduction status. It will also ask them to select one of the following three statements: Statement A: “This is my first job since 6 April and since then I’ve not received payments from Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Incapacity Benefit.” This statement is typically for those who have not had any form of work before, even part-time, and are now starting their first paid job, for example, school leavers. Statement B: “Since 6 April I’ve had another job but I do not have a P45 and/or since the 6 April I’ve received payments from any Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Incapacity Benefit." This statement is typically for those who have lost their P45 or did not receive a P45 from their last employer. Statement C: "I have another job and/or am in receipt of a State, Works or Private Pension.” If the employee receives payments from any pensions, they must not choose either statements A or B above, but rather statement C. Once the HMRC starter checklist has been completed by the employee, this form must be forwarded to your payroll department, so that this information can be recorded in your payroll software. Having obtained your employee’s information, you can use the online tool at GOV.UK to work out their tax code and starter declaration to use in your payroll software, and to establish what else to do before you pay your employee for the first time. The information obtained from a new-starter and provided to payroll must be retained as part of your records for the current year and the following three tax years. HMRC may check your records to see that you are paying the right amount of tax for your employees, where your payroll records must show that you have reported accurately. If you fail to keep accurate records, HMRC may estimate what you have to pay and charge you a penalty. Does your new-starter need to repay a student loan? If your new-starter has an outstanding student loan, you may be responsible for making deductions for repayments for this. You should make student loan deductions if either: your new-starter’s P45 shows that deductions should continue your new-starter tells you that they are repaying a student or postgraduate loan, for example, on their HMRC starter checklist, or HMRC sends you either form SL1 or form PGL1, and your employee earns over the income threshold for their loan. You will need to check these thresholds. Even if your new-starter has a P45 from their last job, you should ask them if they have a student or postgraduate loan, where they may have both. You must record their answer in your payroll software. If they finished their studies after 6 April in the current tax year, they will not begin to repay their loan until the following tax year. You do not need to calculate their loan recovery repayments as your payroll software will do this for you. If your new-starter has a student loan, you should ask them to sign in to their repayment account to check which plan to use for deductions or to contact the student loans company. If they are still not sure, use should use Plan 1 in your payroll software until you get an SL1. Where the new-starter is on more than one plan, start the student loan deductions for the plan with the lowest recovery threshold until you receive an SL1. The possible student loan plans are as follows: The employee will have a Plan 1 if either they lived in Northern Ireland when they began their course of studies, or in England or Wales and began before 1 September 2012 The employee will have a Plan 2 if they lived in England or Wales and began their course of studies on or after 1 September 2012 The employee will have a Plan 4 if they lived in Scotland and applied through the Students Award Agency Scotland (SAAS) when they began their course The employee will have a Postgraduate Loan if either they lived in England and began their Master’s course on or after 1 August 2016, lived in Wales and began their Master’s course on or after 1 August 2017, or lived in England or Wales and began their Postgraduate Doctoral course on or after 1 August 2018. How do you register your new-starter with HMRC? To register your new-starter with HMRC, you will not be required to send the completed HMRC starter checklist, but you will instead need to include their details on what is known as a Full Payment Submission (FPS) the first time that you pay them. You can use the information from the employee’s P45 or completed checklist to help fill this in. You can then use your payroll software to send an FPS on or before their first payday. On this first FPS, you will need to include the following: the information that you have collected from the employee the tax code and employee starter declaration that you have worked out the payments and deductions made since they started working for you, for example, Income Tax, National Insurance contributions and student loan deductions, but not including figures from their previous employment. For any employee that you will only be paying once, you will need to operate PAYE differently. In these circumstances, you must set up a payroll record with the employee’s full name and address, and if you give them a payroll ID, you must ensure that this is unique. When you send your FPS, you will need to use tax code ‘0T’ on a ‘Week 1’ or ‘Month 1’ basis, putting ‘IO’ in the ‘Pay frequency’ field, and do not put a start or leaving date. You must then give the employee a statement showing their pay, before and after deductions, and the payment date, for example, a payslip or letter. You do not need to give them a P45. What was the P46 and what has replaced this? The P46 was a tax form completed by new-starters who did not have a P45. This has been replaced with the HMRC starter checklist. In the same way as the P46, the starter checklist allows employers to add an employee to PAYE and calculate a temporary tax code for them. It is important, however, that when asked to complete the HMRC starter checklist, the individual selects the correct employee starter declaration, or they may end up paying either too much or too little tax under an emergency code. The starter checklist will help the employer to deduct the most accurate tax and National Insurance if they do not have the correct tax code from HMRC, although it may not necessarily be exact and require amendments in later payslips when the correct code is sent. If HMRC has sent you a tax code, you must use that code if your employee gives you a P45 or starter checklist after you have first paid them, deducting any student loan repayments from the date that they started working for you. You may need to update your payroll records if your employee later produces a P45 after you have registered them with HMRC. If the employee gives you a P45 from the outset, they will not also need to complete the HMRC starter checklist. This is because the P45 contains all of the information an employer will need to set up a new-starter on payroll with the right tax code. Any changes required to this code will be issued by HMRC directly to you as the employer. FAQ’s What is a HMRC starter checklist? A HMRC starter checklist is a form that new employees will need to complete if they don’t have their P45 or left their last job before 6 April 2021. Once completed, this must be sent to the employer’s payroll department. How do you fill in a starter checklist? The HMRC starter checklist can either be completed online and printed off, or downloaded and completed manually. This asks the employee for their personal details and to tick an employee starter declaration as to their last job and benefits received. What does starter checklist mean? The starter checklist is a form completed by a new-starter who does not have a P45 or was last employed prior to 6 April 2021. This will enable the employer to work out their tax code and complete payroll. What do I need if I don't have a P45? If you don’t have a P45, you can complete the HMRC starter checklist, providing your employer with your personal details, a declaration as to when you last worked, any benefits or pension received and your student loan deduction status.

Trade unions have started legal action against the UK Government to challenge new rules allowing agency workers to replace striking staff. Trade unions, led by the led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), have begun judicial review proceedings, claiming that the new legislation permitting businesses to use agency workers to break strikes constitutes a “broad […]